Old habits die hard is an exhibition-in-progress, where artists-run
spaces and collectives around the world are invited to particpate.
By utilising existing networks, spaces and collectives are asked
to select an artist video, which will become part of the exhibition.
Some participants include : Instant Coffee from Toronto, Canada
/ VIDEOART CENTER Tokyo from Tokyo / Blue Oyster Gallery from
Dunedin New Zealand / Dirt Palace from Providence, USA / Signal
from Malmö, Sweden / The Danger Museum from Norway/Japan
/ Mercer Union from Toronto, Canada / Message Salon from Zürich,
Switzerland / Tranmission from Glasglow, Scotland / Platform
from Finland.

Old habits die hard can be seen as a necessary trigger for
updating audiences about the presence and work of these spaces
and collectives. In line with our work at Sparwasser HQ, Old
habits die hard seeks to connect people and platforms together
for exhibition opportunities and peer support, in a bid to be
less dependent on insitutional situations offered by museums
and cultural bodies.
Old habits die hard relies on the context of how these artist-run
spaces and collectives exist and how they select the video. This
would inevitably express the content building process, that will
be evident within the exhibition.

Sparwasser HQ has the pleasure to present:

Annika Eriksson show her newest video, seen in the
context of her
earlier works.

You are invited to attend the artist's talk and to dialogue
with the artist

Tuesday, September 23. at 8 pm

Please scroll down for the artist's text.
Artist CV is on the page http://www.sparwasserhq.de/talk/talks.htm

The evening will be held in English.

ANNIKA ERIKSON

In her videos Annika Eriksson works with individuals or groups
to whom she offers the chance of presenting themselves within
her video framework, whether it be, for instance, in the form
of a small performance, the account of a chosen passion or simply
an introduction to one's person, citing name and profession.
This is a concept she has implemented, among others, with the
brass and drum orchestras of volunteer fire departments or postal
units, a dance theatre group of the handicapped, a series of
collectors, the entire staff of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm,
students of the curator's course at the Goldsmiths College in
London or personnel at the Sao Paulo Biennale. All the presentations
are based on a precise concept that, on one hand, provides exact
definitions of the form and content of the presentation and,
on the other, always leaves room for those in question to fill
ad libitum. For example, the presentations of the collectors
are structured along the following lines: the collector stands
before the video camera, introduces himself and names the object
of his collection. Then the collector speaks freely as long as
he thinks it right or as long as he has
something to tell about his collection and his passion. He then
ends with the set phrase "thank you" and Eriksson switches
the camera off. This pattern provides a formal frame for the
recurring individual presentations that assigns the collector
a genre and makes them comparable. As viewers we are sensitised
to the distinctions between the collectors' presentations: each
one uses his room for manoeuvre differently, presents his own
activities in various ways and portrays himself in his own fashion.
This is similar to what occurs with the orchestras: their guideline
is to march from the left into the video frame one at a time
and to group themselves with their instruments frontally to the
camera. Their exit takes the same course in reverse. In the time
in-between, the orchestras' sole task is to play the song "Sour
Times" by the pop group Portishead in an interpretation
that is left completely up to them. Since none of these ensembles
ever play pop music, it is an exercise that gives them the freedom
to deal with the theme as radically as they like. There is no
set recipe. In this way the margin Erikson allows the participants
is also a challenge, because it can or must be filled. Eriksson's
projects always ask how individuals deal with the possibility
of an authentic self-presentation or performance as well as whatthe
relationship is between the individual and the collective. >Thursday,
31
October, 7 p.m. Sren Grammel, for "Es ist schwer das Reale
zu berüren", Kunstverein München 2003